How to Reuse Old Shower Curtains

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A few rips in the shower curtain or the design on it is looking faded and tired? Time to change it for a new one; before you do so, keep the old one to reuse around the house - it probably still has a little life left in it!

Wash the shower curtain. Put the shower curtain through a cold, gentle wash cycle to remove soap scum and mold. To use less water, you can also try soaking the shower curtain in a bleach solution, then scrubbing it with a brush as needed. A moldy shower curtain will not store well and can easily infect other items. Hang out to dry.

An easy way to clean your dirty shower curtain is to run it through the washing machine with small and soft items like hand towels, wash cloths, socks, etc. Use cool water and plenty of soap and agitation. After the spin cycle, remove the shower curtain and re-spin the cloth items to remove trapped water. (The little items will "scrub" away the soap scum and residue, leaving a nicely clean plastic liner.) Allow to air dry before storing, as stated above.

After doing this, you may also want to consider re-using the shower curtain. If it looks worn, you can cover it up with a fabric shower curtain.

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Use as a drop cloth when decorating. Old shower curtains make excellent drop cloths for quick decorating fixes and for small decorating jobs. Lay down the shower curtain to catch paint drips, sawdust shavings, drilled masonry dust etc.

Use it for finger painting fun. Lay down the shower curtain on the floor, then place newspapers on top. Let your little ones enjoy their finger painting on top of the paper, and you can rest easy in the knowledge that paint seeping through the paper is caught by the shower curtain layer underneath.

Use it as a water slide. During summer, peg down the shower curtain on a small slope in the garden. Run the hose down it and have the kids slide down for some homemade water fun. Naturally, only do this if you live in an area that allows use of water in this way.

Use it to keep the outdoor furniture dry. If you have a cane chair or a special teak chair that you wish to protect from the rain, a shower curtain is likely to be just the right size. Wrap the furniture item and tuck underneath the legs or base of the item if possible. String or elastic ties can also be added to prevent it blowing off.

Cover the barbecue. A plastic shower curtain can make a useful barbecue cover if you don't have a customized one. Be careful it doesn't look too tacky when the guests appear for a barbecue though! (This also works for covering the lawn mower to protect it from the weather.)

Use it for artwork. Create collages from the curtain if it has delightful images on it. Cut out the images and glue them onto the canvas of your choice using appropriate craft glue. Canvases might include cork boards, painting canvas, cardboard, paper, a wall space etc. You might even be able to use cut out pictures and patterns from your shower curtain like stickers in your scrapbook!

Use it as a pattern. If there is a sewing pattern you like to use but don't like using the paper pattern pieces or want to make it last longer make plastic cut-outs of the pattern pieces. Lay your pattern pieces out on the shower curtain and pin them to the curtain (so they don't slide out of place), then using a large marker or Sharpie outline the pieces and any notations you need, then just cut them out. Unpin the tissue pattern pieces and fold them up for safekeeping and the plastic pieces fold up easily into a large Ziploc plastic bag for storage. They unfold without wrinkles or ripping as easily as the originals. Make sure you have all the pieces and any notations you need (writing them on a piece of paper for each piece and sticking it in the baggie is useful) and write the name of the pattern on the Ziploc.

Make a fly strip curtain. Carefully cut strips in the curtain and hang it above a garage or shed door to discourage the entry of flies and other insects into a workspace area. You could also do this at the back door but it might spoil the look of the house to do this; it really depends on how nice your old shower curtain is!

Keep your old shower curtain in the trunk of your car, along with an old blanket or quilt. Next time you are at an outdoor event and want to sit on the grass, put down the shower curtain, then the blanket on top. The shower curtain keeps ground moisture from coming through your blanket.

Take it tent camping and use by attaching it to the spines of an open umbrella that has been hung up-side down from a branch. You now have a changing room (unless your shower curtain is clear!) or a small bathing room.

Cover your air conditioner,either a window unit (on the inside and/or the outside), or an outside central air unit. You might want to do some cutting to fit, or just bunch up the excess and fill in spaces, if needed. Those bungee-like straps with a hook on each end can be used to wrap around to hold the cover in place; it might take two or three to do it, depending on the size of the unit. Or you can use duct tape to hold where the straps aren't practical. The covers are probably good for one season and then use another the next year, when you decide it's once again time for a new shower curtain. If you tuck and fold carefully, and if the shower curtain doesn't have a giveaway design, you can make these look like they were made especially for the purpose of covering the AC.

Protect A Mattress. An old shower curtain makes an excellent, inexpensive mattress protector for a child who is being toilet trained. Simply place it under the bed sheets. You will still have to wash the sheets, but the bed itself will remain dry, and there is little to no chance that it can cause any form of choking, as it would be covered by the bed sheets.

Well washed old shower curtains that are still in good condition are appreciated charity store donations. Leave the tatty ones out though; if you wouldn't want to buy it, neither would somebody else and there are plenty of wonderful uses for it in this article!

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wikiHow is a “wiki,” similar to Wikipedia, which means that many of our articles are co-written by multiple authors. To create this article, 25 people, some anonymous, worked to edit and improve it over time. This article has also been viewed 133,492 times.